Oleksandr Balabin, a first-year student of Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, became the European champion among juniors in boxing in the weight category up to 70 kg. The competition was held from November 25 to December 2, 2020 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Fighting for gold, five-time Ukrainian champion Oleksandr Balabin had three fights. In the first fight, he met with an athlete from Lithuania, and, having knocked him down in the second round, he confidently continued to increase his advantage and ended the fight with a victory. In the second match, our athlete met with a representative of the Russian Federation. Demonstrating high technical skill, Oleksandr ended this fight with a knockdown in the first round. In the final, Oleksandr Balabin had to meet with an experienced Bulgarian junior boxer Serhi Vladoianu. In the second and third rounds of the fight, he increased the offensive pace and confidently won by unanimous decision of the judges with a score of 5:0, becoming the gold medalist of the competition.

It should be noted that the junior boxing team, which included men's and women's teams, won 20 medals, which is the best result in the history of the junior boxing team for all the years of independence of Ukraine. Among the received awards, there are 5 gold, 4 silver and 11 bronze medals. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi congratulated Ukrainian athletes on an excellent result.